Spelling Fun
English Spelling is very difficult because English draws from so many different languages, Latin, Anglo-Saxon, Greek, French, etc. George Bernard Shaw pointed out that "ghoti" could be pronounced "fish".
- "Gh" pronounced "f", as in enough
- "o" pronounced "i", as in women
- "ti" pronounced "sh", as in station
Another example, published in the James Clarke column of The Star runs as follows:
The name Turner, can be spelled "Phtholognyrrh"
- "Phth" pronounced "T", as in phthisis
- "olo" pronounced "ur", as in colonel
- "gn" pronounced "n", as in gnat
- "yrrh" pronounced "er", as in myrrh
Exercises
Can you work out what the standard English pronounciations of the following words would be?
- Ptwromboan (Clue:- a musical instrument)
- pheumeagayt
- pamshire
- ebtyrrhgnell
